Obama: Attendees Will Be Screened for Ebola Before U.S.-Africa Leaders
Summit <
http://mashable.com/people/jessicaplautz/>
<
http://mashable.com/people/jessicaplautz/> By Jessica Plautz
02/08/2014
President Obama announced Friday that African leaders attending a summit in
Washington, D.C., next week will be screened for Ebola.
At least 729 people have died and more than 1,300 people have fallen ill
from the viral disease in the worst outbreak ever, primarily affecting
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
See also: <
http://mashable.com/2014/08/01/ebola-united-states-law/> Here's
Why It's Safe to Bring Ebola Patients to the U.S.
"We're making sure we're doing screening as [they leave from their home
airports] and some additional screening here," Obama said. Attendees who had
"even a marginal risk ... of having been exposed" to Ebola could be screened
after arriving in the U.S, he added.
The <
http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit> U.S.-Africa
Leaders Summit, held from Aug. 4 - 6, will welcome about 50 representatives
from nations across Africa to Washington, D.C.
The summit is intended to "build on the progress made since the President's
trip to Africa last summer, advance the Administration's focus on trade and
investment in Africa, and highlight America's commitment to Africa's
security, its democratic development, and its people,"
<
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/21/statement-press-secre
tary-announcing-us-africa-leaders-summit> according to the White House. It
is the largest event any U.S. president has held to welcome African leaders.
Attendees will visit the White House, the State Department, the World Bank
and Capitol Hill.
The Ebola outbreak is keeping leaders from Liberia and Sierra Leone from
attending.
"If all of the infectious individuals come from the same geographic region,
passenger screening and quarantine procedures are usually the first measures
implemented to prevent against the spread of infectious diseases," said
Nicholas Yager, a biochemist who has studied
<
http://nicholasyager.com/research/2014/04/14/2014-04-14-Edge-based-control-
of-disease-propagation-through-the-world-wide-airport-network.html> disease
propagation through airport networks.
The risk of spreading the pathogen at airports is low, and with proper
precautions, health officials are not concerned about the disease spreading
in the U.S. A medically-outfitted private jet will bring two American aid
workers who are ill with the disease from West Africa
<
http://mashable.com/2014/08/01/ebola-united-states-law/> to Atlanta in the
next week. The aid workers will receive treatment at Emory University
Hospital, which has one of the best isolation units for highly infectious
diseases in the U.S.
Received on Sat Aug 02 2014 - 18:00:32 EDT